What's Love Got To Do With It

One definition I found for love was, "an intense feeling of deep affection".  I often hear people refer to love as a "strange thing", while I am not in complete disagreement with this statement, I too am not in total agreement with this sentiment.  Love (to me) is much more about action(s) than it is about emotion(s).  So often love is portrayed as romantic feeling that you feel in your gut when that person you are smitten with comes into your presence.  Media shows love as in a variety of ways but rarely does it show the work and sacrifice it takes to maintain this feeling.  If you do not put anything into the love you interact with then it s surely to come to nothing. There is nothing wrong with having an emotional feeling, in fact this is a good thing if you feel this when in the presence of someone you love.

My wife and I just came back off of a week long cruise to the Caribbean.  We decided to leave our boys behind as we celebrated our 15 year anniversary.  During this time we talked, reconnected and simply enjoyed each others company.  When we are at home, there are soo many things we let get in the way of us simply being able to sit and talk to each other and spend quality time together.  On occasion, we do sneak in time in between all of our other responsibilities, but it is nothing like the concentrated time that we had together while on the cruise.  By us putting in the work to sit in each others presence, push through the silent moments and talk.  We were able to show each other love in the simple, everyday ways that we often overlook - like holding hands, laughing, playing footsies, etc...




John 3:16 tells us that God so loved the world (had such a deep affection) that He did something - He gave His only son so that we would have a way to get back to the Father.  Because He loved us, He was not satisfied with the warm fuzzy feeling that He had after creating us.  He sent His son so that we would spend one-one time with Him so we could find out what needs to be done in order for us to make it to the kingdom.  The more time we spend with Him the better off we are and our relationship strengthens & grows.  It is not in the busy moments that our relationship grows, it is in the still one-one moments that we obtain greater insight into what a loving realtionship is.  Love should drive us to want to spend more valuable time with those we love, not only spend more time but if there are areas in our life that we need to change because it is the better way to live (not change to be controlled), we should be willing to take action and begin to change.

What is love to you?  What have you done recently for those you love?

Blessings,
-d